How did Nightcrawler die in the comics?
One of the best things that happened to the X-Men since they returned via the X-Men 97 series now streaming on Disney Plus is the later addition of Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler to the team after the tragic destruction of Genosho in Episode 5, “Remember It”. But fans who have read the X-Men books know that there was a moment in Episode 10 – Extinction is Tolerance Part 3 that Kurt needed to be careful because he was fighting Bastion.
You see in the story “Second Coming” the third installment in the X-Men’s “Messiah” trilogy, the X-Men are playing a race against time and trying to get a teenage Hope Summers to their island home of Utopia in order to keep her safe from the forces that want her and the rest of mutantkind dead including the Man-Machine being known as Bastion who spearheaded Operation Zero Tolerance some years back.
Nightcrawler uses his teleportation powers to do a cross-country teleport for him, Rogue and Hope Summers trying to lose the Purifiers and the sentinels who are hounding them. Kurt takes a break in Las Vegas when they are attacked.
They are attacked by no less than Bastion himself now looking much like his animated series counterpart.
Bastion begins the assault on the trio with Rogue taking the first offense against the killer robot. She is quickly dispatched by Bastion despite using various mutant powers from her teammates including Colossus, X-23 and Archangel. When Bastion was about to kill Rogue, Hope Summers steps in and tries to kill Bastion.
Nightcrawler spots what Bastion was planning to do next and teleports just before he kills the mutant messiah.
Kurt is mortally wounded with a gaping hole on his chest but he still heroically saves the day (and mutantkind) by teleporting Hope to Utopia before finally dying.
Kurt also says to Hope Summers that he believes in her and her capabilities in the present and what her powers can do for the dwindling mutant populace. And he dies on the shores of Utopia.
Of course this will not stick for far too long as in years that follow, Nightcrawler has been revived in Jason Aaron’s run on the X-Men where the X-Men visit the afterlife to rescue Kurt’s soul in a weird pirate-inspired afterlife adventure which also involves the cute little baby Nightcrawlers they call “Bamfs”.
